I know everyone is happy that we might not strike Syria as a result of this plan, but I am still skeptical. Yes, lets secure tons of chemical weapons in a war zone. Oh, and trust Russia to not cock it up or be dishonest about it. The United States is being played in my opinion.

Securing chemical weapons involves troops on the ground, with the US & Russia be the most familiar with chemical weapon handling. US troops obvious aren't going to happen, so we'll have to trust Syria and its chief arms dealer Russia when both have been very sketchy in the past. Sure we can get back to fawning over the newest Iphone, reality tv, or whatever the hell American's rather being doing but it could also box us in on Syria and delay action for years. Oh, and if Russia helps kill the rebels directly/indirectly that is just something that happens. No worries!

Granted, I'd love to see a diplomatic solution to this mess but I'm not sure that Russia's plan on its own is it.

Putin reminds me of George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan. I wish we had a strong and tough leader like Putin and not some candy-ass like Obama. Someone to align the nation with the church, press down on the gay community, and take on brave, outdoorsy challenges - preferably wearing as little clothes as possible.

bbfreak:I know everyone is happy that we might not strike Syria as a result of this plan, but I am still skeptical. Yes, lets secure tons of chemical weapons in a war zone. Oh, and trust Russia to not cock it up or be dishonest about it. The United States is being played in my opinion.

There's a reason we have a fleet chilling off the Syrian coast for the foreseeable future.

bbfreak:Securing chemical weapons involves troops on the ground, with the US & Russia be the most familiar with chemical weapon handling. US troops obvious aren't going to happen, so we'll have to trust Syria and its chief arms dealer Russia when both have been very sketchy in the past. Sure we can get back to fawning over the newest Iphone, reality tv, or whatever the hell American's rather being doing but it could also box us in on Syria and delay action for years. Oh, and if Russia helps kill the rebels directly/indirectly that is just something that happens. No worries!

Remember the deal to get rid of nukes in Cuba in '62? It's basically this. Russia gets the chemical weapons out of Syria, we start to dismantle the missile defense system in Europe (doesn't work anyway. similar to the Jupiter missiles in '62 were set to be scrapped). Russia doesn't have to worry about a system that doesn't work but still a political stick in their side, America saves face and can say they got chemical weapons out of a warzone/prevent even more deaths. Syrians don't have to worry about being gassed. It's a win all around.

bbfreak:Oh, and good article on why we should be skeptical about Russia's plan.

I'm pretty sure these thoughts have also occurred to the Obama administration. I say this is the right move right now. Hopeful but skeptical.

I think it could actually happen, if for no other reason than this is Putin's big chance to wave his $(#& around and Save The World. If it accomplishes the goal of neutralizing Syria's chemical weapons, I'm OK with that.

somedude210:Remember the deal to get rid of nukes in Cuba in '62? It's basically this. Russia gets the chemical weapons out of Syria, we start to dismantle the missile defense system in Europe (doesn't work anyway. similar to the Jupiter missiles in '62 were set to be scrapped). Russia doesn't have to worry about a system that doesn't work but still a political stick in their side, America saves face and can say they got chemical weapons out of a warzone/prevent even more deaths. Syrians don't have to worry about being gassed. It's a win all around.

Jake Havechek:This so-called deal sounds too good to be true. The Russians are up to something. They must have something going on in Syria they don't want anybody to know about.

Never trust a Russian!

Assad gets to continue this fight with no penalty for his warcrimes, Putin shows the power of Russia's influence in the region, and Obama walks away looking confused and disarmed after being unable to convince his own country to follow him.

Up to something?There's no secret to what's going on. Russia keeps its port, keeps its power, and keeps one of its customers from having to test all those new missile systems they sold him.

What did we get?We could have not made any nonsense about red lines or saber rattling and ended up here with far less egg on our face. It would have gone down as the UN's failure to stop Syria, not ours.

way south:What did we get?We could have not made any nonsense about red lines or saber rattling and ended up here with far less egg on our face. It would have gone down as the UN's failure to stop Syria, not ours.

What egg is on our face? We played good-cop, bad-cop with Syria and they blinked. I don't see the egg anywhere.

way south:What did we get?We could have not made any nonsense about red lines or saber rattling and ended up here with far less egg on our face. It would have gone down as the UN's failure to stop Syria, not ours.

You know damn well that's not how it would've played out. It would've been "Everyone knows the UN is useless, by didn't the US -do something-?!"

A part of the problem is too many people consider the use of chemical weapons "just another way to kill people" and aren't considering the far reaching implications if their use goes unchallenged.

The Bestest:You know damn well that's not how it would've played out. It would've been "Everyone knows the UN is useless, by didn't the US -do something-?!"

A part of the problem is too many people consider the use of chemical weapons "just another way to kill people" and aren't considering the far reaching implications if their use goes unchallenged.

Last time we had a "Collation of the Willing"tm made up of about 50 countries, 14 UN resolutions and took over a year to start it. If you remember their was howling about "rushing" to war and being a cowboy?Now we have a maybe from France. And that's about it....

The Bestest:way south: What did we get?We could have not made any nonsense about red lines or saber rattling and ended up here with far less egg on our face. It would have gone down as the UN's failure to stop Syria, not ours.

You know damn well that's not how it would've played out. It would've been "Everyone knows the UN is useless, by didn't the US -do something-?!"

A part of the problem is too many people consider the use of chemical weapons "just another way to kill people" and aren't considering the far reaching implications if their use goes unchallenged.

Its a problem that the UN is responsible for, same as with land mines and bio weapons. We already had a war over WMD's to show how seriously we take the threat.

If they don't want to uphold that standard then this is just how it will have to be.Chemical weapons will be created and traded once again, and when they are used it will be someone else's turn to explain how we got here.

We can't unilaterally force other nations to step up to their responsibilities every single time. Its costing us too much of our own legitimacy.

cameroncrazy1984:way south: What did we get?We could have not made any nonsense about red lines or saber rattling and ended up here with far less egg on our face. It would have gone down as the UN's failure to stop Syria, not ours.

What egg is on our face? We played good-cop, bad-cop with Syria and they blinked. I don't see the egg anywhere.

Syria crossed all our red lines, committed crimes we specifically told them not to, lied about it to the world, and got Putin (their arms dealer) to front a deal that excuses them from all responsibility.

They aren't the ones who blinked.They are the ones walking out police stations front door after dropping off the murder weapon, leaving good-cop Kerry and bad-cop Obama to fill out the paperwork.

The Bestest:way south: What did we get?We could have not made any nonsense about red lines or saber rattling and ended up here with far less egg on our face. It would have gone down as the UN's failure to stop Syria, not ours.

You know damn well that's not how it would've played out. It would've been "Everyone knows the UN is useless, by didn't the US -do something-?!"

A part of the problem is too many people consider the use of chemical weapons "just another way to kill people" and aren't considering the far reaching implications if their use goes unchallenged.

Good thing we never dropped millions of gallons of Agent Orange on Viet Nam!